North Korea is again conducting missile tests.
On Tuesday, a projectile flew over Japan before it landed in the Pacific Ocean. There is considerable speculation about the meaning and significance of these tests. What truly matters is that they endanger Japanese citizens and property, violate international law and threaten to destabilize an already tense region. They must be stopped.
North Korea has carried out more than 20 missile tests this year. Tuesday’s was the fifth in 10 days. Over the previous weekend, Pyongyang fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan. Tuesday’s projectile, thought to be a Hwasong-12 intermediate-range missile, flew about 4,600 km — “the longest ever range,” said Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada — to land in waters outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) after reaching an altitude of 1,000 km. North Korea has fired ballistic missiles over Japan seven times; this week’s launch was the first since 2017.